"What about the person who normally sorts the mail?" Rod asked. "Do they remember seeing the package?"
Leif said, "The mail room guy doesn't remember putting that package in Victoria's box. The thing is, he handles at least a hundred packages a day. He says he doesn't remember any of them, unless maybe they're so big they don't fit in the box at all."
"Just because the guy had access to the package doesn't mean he'd have the motive to kill Fate," Rod said. "Do we know yet what kind of opiate was used? Would Victoria Hanawa be able to get any? Would she have the know-how to modify a smoke bomb?"
"Tests have been negative so far for heroin, morphine, and Percocet," Nicole said. "Now the lab is testing some of the less common ones. But we won't have the test results back for several days--maybe longer if they don't get a match."
Rod looked dubious. "I still keep coming back to the idea that it would have been incredibly risky to hand him the package and then hang around. Would Victoria have the guts to stay?"
Nicole shrugged. "What better way to provide herself an alibi than to stay with him until the end and then-cry crocodile tears while she takes over his program?"
"I'm not sure I would agree," Allison said. "If you want to look at people who had a beef with Jim Fate, the line would be down the block. So Victoria Hanawa and Jim Fate didn't always see eye to eye. But is that enough reason to kill someone?" She knew that it actually was, that almost anything could be reason enough in the right person's twisted mind. "Victoria didn't evacuate the building. She stayed even though she knew that something in that room was killing Fate. She stayed even though he ordered her to leave. She says it was so he wouldn't be alone."
The idea nearly brought tears to Allison's eyes. She remembered what it was like, thinking she might be dying, anonymous, surrounded by strangers in the street. To have someone there, comforting her, steadying her, would have been so welcome.
Nicole would not be swayed. "Yeah, but what happened after everyone else had evacuated? What if Hanawa stayed so she could take evidence? With no witnesses. Or only one witness. And she knew he wouldn't be able to say anything."
Leif asked, "How about people who were listeners, or who had been on the show?"
Smoothly shifting gears, Nicole said,"I think the family of Brooke Gardner has got to be at the top of the list. After all, their daughter killed herself after having been on the show and basically having him accuse her--falsely--of killing her own child. And Fate did receive a threat directly linked to her death."
Allison added, "And there's Congressman Quentin Glover. We've all seen that commercial. And the transcripts show that Fate was hammering him day after day, calling on him to resign. Chris told us he has gotten several angry phone calls from Glover, and that he and Fate were once personal friends."
"There's no greater enemy," Rod said, "than an old friend."
Chapter 29 Southeast Portland
Leif drove easily, one hand on the wheel, the other resting lightly on the emergency brake, only a few inches from Nic's left thigh. After calling earlier in the day, they were driving out to interview Brooke Gardner's parents, who lived in outer southeast Portland.
For the past few weeks, Nic had begun carrying Leif around in her head. Every morning, when she put on a blouse or selected a pair of earrings, she wondered what he would think when he saw them. If she read an interesting article in the paper or watched an intriguing segment on the news, Nic imagined sharing it with him. Pushing her grocery cart through WinCo, she wondered if he liked sharp cheddar or had a favorite brand of Ben & Jerry's.
A few weeks earlier, they had met for Saturday breakfast. Makayla had spent the night with Nic's parents. Before she agreed to meet him, Nic made it clear to Leif that it wasn't a date. That they were just friends. And he had kept it light, not touching her, or looking at her in a certain way, or even saying anything that a coworker wouldn't say.
But now, sitting beside him, aware of his every breath, she wondered if she was making a mistake, the way Allison and Cassidy kept saying. Something had shifted inside her in that crowded stairwell, when she had been convinced that she was only a few minutes from death.
Leif's voice interrupted her musing. "What are you thinking?"
Nic wrenched her mind back to the case. "I think we're missing something. But I can't think what." She looked out the window. Twenty years ago, this had all been fields. Now it was strip malls, strip joints, and used car lots.
"Let's hope it comes to you. Because right now, the way I see it, the problem isn't that we don't have enough suspects. It's that we have way too many."